End-of-probation procedure - Commission

Opinion of 10 March 2009 on the notification for prior checking concerning the "end-of-probation procedure" case (Case 2008-720)

The aim of the processing operation under examination is to evaluate the performance of the official or other staff member in order to decide whether to grant establishment of the official, keep the temporary or contract staff member in their post, or to extend the probationary period. To this end, a probation report is drawn up. The probation report may also be used in the context of the data subject's staff assessment.

The EDPS has examined the proposed processing operation and has recommended in particular that measures be taken to ensure that only data which are strictly necessary to justify a possible extension of the probationary period appear in the probation report, i.e. only general data and data without any medical details can be mentioned in the box provided for this purpose in the probation report; that the Commission should assess whether the probation report should be kept in Sysper2 on the grounds that the data should only be kept for the period of time strictly necessary for the established purposes; and that, in the interest of transparency, the controller should inform the data subjects that, even if the data are not kept by ADMIN A4 in the event of a positive report or in the absence of a dispute, certain data are nevertheless kept in the data subject's personal file. The length of time the data are stored in the personal file should also be stated.